Bobby Petrino

Robert Patrick Petrino (born March 10, 1961) is an American football coach.

He currently serves as the offensive coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

He is the former head coach for the Missouri State Bears.

At the time, his father, Bob Petrino Sr.., was the head coach of Carroll, a position he held from 1971 to 1999.

After a year at Carroll, he moved to Weber State College in the Big Sky Conference, coaching quarterbacks as a graduate assistant under head coach Mike Price.

Born in Lewistown, Montana, Robert Patrick Petrino grew up in Helena and graduated from Capital High in 1979.

He attended hometown Carroll College and graduated with a physical education and a math minor in 1983.

While at Carroll, he played quarterback for the Fighting Saints and began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant during the 1983 season.

Petrino returned to his alma mater in 1985 as offensive coordinator.

In each of his two seasons in that position, Carroll had the top-rated offense in NAIA football.

He then returned to Weber State for two seasons in 1987 and 1988 as the receivers coach under Price.

Petrino spent a year as quarterbacks coach at the University of Idaho in 1989 under new head coach John L. Smith, then was promoted to offensive coordinator the next season.

In 1992, he moved up to Division I-A (now FBS) as the quarterbacks coach at Arizona State University in the Pac-10 Conference.

During his two seasons at ASU under head coach Bruce Snyder, he oversaw the development of future All-American QB Jake Plummer, who went on to play ten seasons in the NFL.

In 1994, he moved to the University of Nevada, serving as both offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Chris Ault.

During his one season there, the Wolf Pack were second in the nation in both passing offense and total offense, and third in scoring offense.

The next year, he began a three-year stint as offensive coordinator at Utah State University, reuniting with Smith.

In his one season there, the Cardinals were top-ranked in Division I-A in scoring and total offense and posted the biggest positive turnaround among I-A football teams, winning six more games than in the 1997 season.

Petrino left the collegiate ranks to coach in the NFL for three years.

When Smith moved to Louisville in 1998, Petrino followed him there as offensive coordinator.

Petrino's first stint in the NFL was with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 1999 to 2001, where he spent two seasons as the quarterbacks coach and a third as offensive coordinator.

In 2002, Petrino returned to the college ranks, replacing Noel Mazzone as offensive coordinator under Tommy Tuberville at Auburn, whose offense significantly improved that season under Petrino's watch.

He previously held the post from 2003 to 2006.

Petrino returned to Louisville in 2003 as head coach, replacing John L. Smith, who had departed for Michigan State.

After only one season at Louisville, Petrino secretly interviewed for the coaching job at Auburn, as the Tigers were considering whether to retain his former boss, Tuberville.

In four years at Louisville, Petrino built the Cardinals into a national power.

He led them to 11 wins in 2004 and 12 wins in 2006—only the second and third times that the Cardinals won as many as 11 games in a season, and to date their only appearances in the final top 10 of a major media poll.

They spent much of 2006 as contenders for the national championship, rising as high as third in the nation before suffering their only loss of the season, against Rutgers.

The 2006 team was invited to the Orange Bowl, only the second major-bowl appearance in school history.

On July 13, 2006, Petrino signed a 10-year, $25.6 million contract to stay on as head football coach.

The deal gave Petrino a raise from $1 million to $1.6 million annually, and he would have been paid $2.6 million in the final year of the deal.

The contract included a buyout clause of $1 million.

Petrino also coached the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) for the first 13 games of the 2007 season.

On January 7, 2007, less than six months after signing the 10-year contract above, it was announced Petrino had accepted the head coaching position for the NFL's Atlanta Falcons.

From 2008 to 2011, Petrino was the head football coach at the University of Arkansas.

He was dismissed from that position in the spring of 2012 for covering up an extramarital affair with an athletic department staffer.

He spent the 2013 season as head football coach of the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers and 2020–2022 seasons as the head coach of the Missouri State Bears.

Petrino has directed his college teams to nine bowl games, including the first Bowl Championship Series (BCS) bowl games for both the Louisville Cardinals and the Arkansas Razorbacks in their programs' histories.

His teams have achieved four 10-win seasons along with six AP top-25 finishes.

Previously, he served as the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals football team from 2014 until being fired during the 2018 season.